Results by title

Bolivia decentralized in an effort to deepen democracy, improve public services, and make government more accountable. Unlike many countries, Bolivia succeeded. Over the past generation, public investment shifted dramatically toward primary services and resource distribution became far more equitable, partly due to the creation of new local governments. Many municipalities responded to decentralization with transparent, accountable government, yet others suffered ineptitude, corruption, or both. Why? Jean-Paul Faguet combines broad econometric data with deep qualitative evidence to investigate the social underpinnings of governance. He shows how the interaction of civic groups and business interests determines the quality of local decision making.

In order to understand decentralization, Faguet argues, we must understand governance from the ground up. Drawing on his findings, he offers an evaluation of the potential benefits of decentralization and recommendations for structuring successful reform.

Yu Zheng challenges the idea that democracy is the prerequisite for developing countries to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and promote economic growth. He examines the relationship between political institutions and FDI through the use of cross-national analysis and case studies of three rapidly growing Asian economies with a focus on the role of microinstitutional “special economic zones” (SEZ).

China’s authoritarian system allows for bold, radical economic reform, but China has attracted FDI largely because of its increasingly credible investment environment as well as its central and local governments’ efforts to overcome constraints on investment. India’s democratic institutions provide more political assurance to foreign investors, but its market became conducive to FDI only when the government adopted more flexible investment policies. Taiwan’s democratic transition shifted its balance of policy credibility and flexibility, which was essential for the nation’s economic takeoff and sustained growth.

Zheng concludes that a more accurate understanding of the relationship between political institutions and FDI comes from careful analysis of institutional arrangements that entail a trade-off between credibility and flexibility of governance.

Governance of Sport: Aspects and Insights provides analysis and applications relative to the governance, policies, and practices important to both profit and nonprofit sport organizations around the world. Governance of Sport explores the influence of diverse cultural contexts on sport governance practices, and provides national and international perspectives on issues relevant to transparent, ethical governance of sport. This textbook is essential reading for upper division undergraduate and graduate students around the world in sport policy, development, and management.

An empirically rich reconstruction of how informality became an intrinsic part of urban life across three continents.

Over a quarter of the world’s urban population lives in informal settlements. While informality as a concept has been widely debated, we still know very little about the phenomenon’s urban history or how that history has shaped the evolution of world cities. Spotlighting the historical processes that have created and sustained urban informality for more than a century, editors Charlotte Vorms and Brodwyn Fischer and this volume’s contributors reveal informality as an intrinsic feature of urbanity, shaping not only cities across the globe but also deeper processes of state formation, socioeconomic stratification, and political struggle.
 
The volume brings together case studies spanning more than a hundred years, drawn from Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, and Mexico), Northern Africa (Morocco and Algeria), and Latin Europe (France, Spain, and Italy). Together, they show that informality is neither a contemporary crisis nor a predicament unique to the Global South. Topics include the origins of informal settlements and their relationship with law and institutional power; grassroots efforts to legitimize shantytown communities; mass social movements for rights to the city; the role that shantytown removal campaigns played in populist politics, fascism, and colonialism; and the ways that informality perpetuated racial and ethnic inequalities. Informal Cities is an indispensable guide to the complex and fraught terrain of urban informality in its many historical guises.

A critical look at the globally dominant development strategy of “empowerment”

Celebratory news features about India’s thriving middle class tell only part of the story of the country’s recent economic rise, frequently glossing over the 300 million Indians who live on the margins and struggle to survive under economic liberalization. How do those cast out of their country’s successes perceive and respond to their position and mobilize against disempowerment?

As Southeast Asia’s cities continue to swell, this timely volume analyzes urban politics in the region.

Why have some Southeast Asian cities become laboratories of reform while others remain mired in old patterns of patronage politics and substandard public services? This has become an important question now that over half of Southeast Asia’s population lives in urban areas, transforming the politics of the region. Quintessentially urban problems—traffic congestion, sanitation, public transport, housing, and the like—increasingly preoccupy policymakers, while the region’s swelling urban middle classes expect their mayors and city governments to provide ever-better infrastructure and amenities.

Drawing on close case studies of a diverse set of seventeen urban areas across four Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand—this volume offers fresh insights into how the region’s urban politics are changing. It provides a new framework for understanding why some cities are flourishing and others are not. Exploring the factors that shape distinct local governance regimes in these cities, Politics and Governance in Urban Southeast Asia also throws light on how urban residents use community associations, informal networks, and other political mechanisms to access the public services they want and need.